The Remnants
by Hell's Descent Is Easy
Summary: Cate Carter is a world renown CIA assassin, her skill only comparable to Natasha Romanoff. Commanded by her director to break into SHIELD records on Hydra, what begins as a easy mission, forms into a battle between good and evil. Forced by her superiors to draw closer to Steve Rogers, she begins to suspect that even the most honest men, cannot be trusted. Steve/OC
1. Chapter 1

"**You want to be a hero? Then prove yourself. Be more than who you believe you're capable of being. Then, and only then, will you be a hero."**

**Chapter 1: The Lies We Tell**

"So, Miss. Carter, do you solemnly swear or affirm that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

Cate looked straight into the officer's eyes. Her bright brown orbs seemed to blaze like liquid fire. "I do."

"Then let us begin." The judge slammed his small wooden hammer against the wood of the desk and his eyes met Cate's lively eyes. She swallowed her fear. She wasn't a woman who ever thought to get herself in a tizzy because of fear. She was better than that. Or, was she? She didn't know who she was surmounting above now. She had fraud, perjury, man-slaughter, and countless other offenses to her name. She was a wanted woman.

_How had it gotten here?_ She thought to herself. Of course, that was an absurd question. She knew exactly. Her eyes watched the prosecuting lawyer below, studying her, thinking of his first question that could peel her lies piece by piece. It had all started with _him_. The very moment she saw him. Every atom in her body screamed that something wanted more.

"Miss. Carter," the lawyer now had collected his things. His glasses rested on his sharp nose as he watched her with beady eyes. "Would you like to explain your associations with the Nazi division, Hydra, or shall I begin?" He was good. Cate had watched this man bring down congressmen, national front runners, and A-list journalists. This man was a god in the world of law.

"Obviously, you already know, sir. Yet, please, spare me the idle chatter. You may begin." Her chocolate brown eyes met his defiantly like hardened iron. The lawyer gave her a flaming glare back, before he turned to the curious jury on the right side of the testimony stand, where large stained-glass windows rose in tall arches. Scenes of order, balance, and moral code portrayed by the Founding Fathers were the backdrop of the jury's seats. She leaned against the leather-backing of the chair, finding it easier to suppress her frantic thoughts and nerves.

"Now, Miss. Carter, you were born into the English family of Marianna Duress and Alias Duress, were you not?"

Her voice failed her, but she managed a terse nod. Her parents. They had been sweet, blissful dreams of the past that had blown away in the distant winds of time.

"From then on, after your parents' untimely accident when you were four, you and your sister, Sharon, were sent to live with your grandparents. You had no idea at the time that your grandmother, Peggy Carter, had had any affiliation with the Nazi division, Hydra, correct?" He had decided to start there, then. At the beginning. Then so be it. They would start at the beginning.

* * *

It began with the accident. She had been only four. She remembered Sharon had been riding in the back with her. It was in bits and pieces like a picture ripped apart, with several of the major parts missing. The purple birthday cake. Icing that had smeared on her fingers. Her mother was turning to scold her. A look of disdain was on her face. A semi-truck. A forty-two ton semi slammed into the front of the car. Sharon's scream cried out into the deathly silence, and then her body was thrown across Cate's. Her impact saved Cate's life. Purple icing was running down from the front seat…along with a red river running from where her father's head should have been… Cate had screamed and screamed and screamed. There was no one there, only a gawking crowd of people who scrambled around the carnage, and looked for a source of life.

She was pulled out of the wreck with sixty-two bones broken including her right leg and left arm. Another flash of memory. A woman. A woman with lush red-hair had pulled her out, along with her sister. She had reminded Cate of a monster. Her beautiful smile had been sharp and edged with a blade of violence. "Don't worry, sweetheart," she had whispered into her ear as she laid her on the stretcher. "Mummy and Daddy didn't feel a thing." Her words raked across the little girl's heart. Mummy? Her mother. Auburn curls. Bright and mirthful green eyes. Where was she? Panic had filled her. Dread had filled her entire body, her heart and stomach twisting into a conglomerated mess. Sharon was rushed past her into an ambulance.

"Where's my mum?" The woman had smiled her sharp-ledged smile. Cate wanted to scream, but everything inside of her was on fire. "Where is my mummy?!" She repeated. Her tone was urgent and desperate, a fiery determination to see her mother lit inside of her.

"She's squashed like a bug, little one." The woman's name was Sinthea. She had read it on her silvery nametag that was clipped on her pristine white jacket. Sinthea had grabbed the little girl by the arm, crushing her badly bruised bones beneath her powerful fingers. "Squashed like a little bug." Cate screamed and the whole world went black.

* * *

**Sixteen Years Later… **

"Agent Carter, come in, code blue, I repeat code blue. You've been compromised." Cate swore loudly and looked desperately for an exit. Her eyes training along the wall, but she found no source of an exit. She raked her eyes across a vent, and a small smile pulled at the corners of her lips.

"This is Agent Carter, boys, I'm coming." She leaped up onto the silvery table, grabbing hold of the ceiling vent just as men dressed in white uniforms came running in. They were speaking in rushed tones, urging each other into a formation. The leader went to grab her dangling boot leg, but Cate only laughed and swung it into his temple, knocking him to his back. She took out a bobby-pin from her pinned hair and struck it into the rusty nail that held the vent in place. The guards reached for her legs, and to Cate's annoyance, began shooting at her with their pistols.

"Ugh. Do you blokes ever stop?" She swung her feet up in between the rungs of the vent and hung there, while she grabbed the first man's gun out of his hand, smacking it across his temple with a smirk, as she leaped into a backwards somersault onto the second one's back, shooting him in the back of the head. She stepped off of the dead man, looking disgusted with the blood sticking to her leather unitard. "Well, that's rather revolting." She crinkled her nose and stepped back onto the table, quickly undoing the vent and jumping up through the hole. She swung herself onto the narrow ledge and crawled through the pipe, feeling a slight breeze from the outside world.

"Agent Carter? Come in." Her watch crackled slightly, but she quickly pressed the off button, before Headquarters blew her cover. She rolled her eyes: _Ignorant Americans. _She crawled down the tunnel, finding the vent led to the director's office. Director Fury paced back and forth below her in his office. _Dammit_. Cate cursed to herself as she watched Fury. Her watch lit up with a message: AGENT CARTER, RESPOND. She narrowed her eyes and grabbed the watch from off of her wrist and threw it down the vent, a beeping sound went off in the office and Fury turned in alarm. Before he could react, gas from the watch went off and he slumped down against his chair, unconscious from the effects of the drug. She delicately slid down the pipe, landing on her feet as balanced as a cat.

"Alright, Mr. Director, let's see what you've been up to." She entered the passcode quickly, the numbers on the screen lighting up to her touch. As soon as the final digit was entered a voice came through the intercom: _Fury, Nicholas J., access granted. _Cate got a triumphant smile on her face. _This is too easy. _She found the file and, of course, exactly what she had needed to find. The information SHIELD had been keeping locked up inside of itself.

_Security Breach detected. _The voice began a drill with red flashing lights. "Damn." She downloaded the information onto the hard-drive, before ripping it out of the large computer. Cate knew there was no time for a measly search for an exit, and she had seconds before Fury's cronies would be after her. She twirled through the air and grabbed her watch off the floor, before racing to the crystal, clear windows that looked over the picturesque city of Washington. Too bad she didn't have the time to take a picture.

Cate side kicked the window glass hard, causing a shower of glass to fall and leaving a hole with enough room for her to leap through. She stepped up to the edge looking down to the hundred feet drop below. "Agent Carter to Control. Mission Accomplished." She leaped out of the hole and into a free fall, right down to the hard cement ground. She closed her eyes and moved quickly, going into a dive-like position. Her fingers reached for her belt where she activated her parachute. As quick as lighting a spider-like web of fibers spread above her head, slowing her descent. She grabbed onto the top branch of a tree, somersaulting over the branches and onto the cement ground.

"Carter, where are you?" She heard her partner's voice crackle over the messaging system of her watch. She rolled her eyes, but broke into a fast-paced run. She heard the screech of sirens behind her… They wanted to play tag. Cate smirked and pulled a small hand-grenade out of her belt, throwing it behind her. She twirled through the air just as the explosion went off, sending off three of SHIELD's swat cars flying through the air.

"Mathias, _now_." She whispered into her watch, dodging flying pieces of metal that went past her. She could feel the eruption of the explosion beneath her boots as she ran, and the sound was deafening. Cate grabbed hold of a telephone pole, spotting the familiar black helicopter above her. She climbed it quickly, her legs treading the wood like it was a simple tree trunk. "Mathias! My grandmum could drive a helicopter faster than you!" She screamed into the intercom. She counted down the seconds until the helicopter was within jumping distance.

"Catherine, you have to jump!" Mathias' face was visible now through the open window of the chopper. "Carter, now, or I'll hit the building!" His eyes were widening with fear. Cate gripped the side of the telephone pole, pulling herself slowly up onto the top. Shots were fired past her from men shooting below her.

"Carter!" Cate looked up and just as the helicopter was about to scrape across SHIELD's beloved Triskelion she leaped and grabbed hold of the silvery ladder, swinging herself up into the machine. She grabbed hold of a rung to steady herself as Mathias blasted through the air, avoiding shots from air carriers.

"You sure like to waste your time, don't you, Andrew?" Cate drew out as she hopped into the copilot seat, propping her feet up onto the controls and leaning back into the seat. She could tell by Mathias' expression he was furious, his hands clamped into a death grip on the controls of the chopper. She knew from previous experience that Mathias should not have been prodded any more than he already was.

"Andrew…" She sighed and looked at him with a pleading expression. "You have to forgive me."

"You could have gotten killed, Cate. Not just you. Us. Both of us." His words were laced with bitterness. She felt the biting stab of his words sink in, but she didn't reveal it. Her face was refrained to the same mask of calm it was always set in. Her sharp, yet elegant features staring straight ahead. "I don't know what you think, Cate, but this isn't just about you trying to get your one moment of glory anymore. This encompasses the sovereignty of the whole damn world. Do you even understand that?"

Cate didn't say anything.

"Would you listen to me!" His words slapped her across the face, leaving a stinging sensation in her heart.

She turned sharply to face him, her chocolate brown eyes meeting his with an intense stare. "Yes, Andrew, I understand that. I didn't join the damn CIA because I believed that America was the country I wanted to live in. I joined this program because it _meant_ something to me. This isn't a little game we can continue to play, Mathias, where we pretend like there isn't a threat to the U.S., we have to be realists. Real authentic people."

"And you think that's who you are? The girl who lies to herself every other second?" Mathias snapped at her. He flew into a cloud, his grey eyes looked on ahead with a certain hate. What he said was true. She was the girl who lied. Since she was fifteen, she had been the CIA's little spy. Five years later, here she was, still pretending to be the one person she wasn't.

"Maybe I am, Andrew, but at least I know the lies I speak."

"No one knows the lies they tell, Carter, that's why they're called lies."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Captain's Captive **

"And what happened after that?" The lawyer, his name had reminded Cate of something that had pertained to the anus, but she couldn't remember it now.

"We went back to Headquarters in Fairfax, a short distance away from the Triskelion of SHIELD. But of course, we had to make it appear as if we were going off into the Midwestern area. The CIA couldn't afford a SHIELD tracker trying to latch on like the scumbag of a parasite it is." Cate's words were sharped and heavily weighed, but still, a few chuckles from the back of the room could be heard. She knew the laugh. It was _him_. Her heart automatically skipped a beat, only _he _could do that to her…

She heard the irritated sigh of the prosecuting lawyer, a small, entertained smile pulling at her lips. "So, you and Agent Mathias decided to take a different route, then?"

Her eyes met_ his_ blue ones. Those eyes that saw right through her façade the moment she met him. "Well, you see, sir, Agent Mathias did, but I, as usual, had other ideas…"

* * *

The helicopter had settled into an even pace as it circled forward to the outskirts of the city. SHIELD's aircraft carriers had stopped their mad pursuit as soon as the chopper went under anti-thermal detection, while trying out its new invisible panels. Cate had taken this opportunity to check in with HQ to let them know her and Mathias were taking the longer route.

"Nice little stunt you pulled there, Agent Carter." One of the boys down at base remarked as she checked in. "You really like to _bang_ stuff, don't ya'?" There was some laughter at their annoying allegory of "bang."

"Yes, sir, as a matter of fact, I do. I also would _love _to kick your arse." Instantly, they shut their mouths as Cate shut off the intercom. "Imbeciles." She muttered to herself as she looked out the window. Her eyes trailed the peak of the clouds above, watching the sky for any indication of movement. The sky was aspen blue, almost like the crystal-clear blue of Windex. When Cate had been a child, on days like this, her grandmum would have taken her and Sharron down to the beach to play and laugh in the ocean's gentle waves…

"Carter," Mathias called to her, breaking her reverie. Instantly, Cate was on her feet coming up to the front of the chopper. She noticed that her partner's features were pinched in a line of worry, looking ahead to the front of the sky.

"What is it, Andrew?"

"Look." His voice was grave. A large, silvery aircraft was rising up beside them. The iron-shielded eagle of SHIELD marked on the side.

"Well, is that not bloody wonderful?" Cate snapped, quickly going to the back of the helicopter. "How they can tell we're here?" She called to Mathias, grabbing a parachute.

"Well, from my readings, it would appear that their launching some sort of sonar scan." Cate slipped the sleek parachute pack over her shoulders, going to the door.

"Bloody fantastic." She pulled the door open, eyeing the aircraft. "I shall return, then."

"Hey, Carter!" Mathias called to her, Cate turned to face him. "Don't be an idiot, please." She smiled sweetly at him before diving out into the air. The sheer force of the wind slapped her across the face, but Cate knew that if she didn't act, she would fall. She pushed up into the air, rising several feet and grabbed hold of the ledge of SHIELD's aircraft. She pulled her feet onto the ledge, twisted the door open easily and slipped in, landing into a poised crouch.

"_Door opened_." The intercom overhead announced with a rather annoying drone of a voice. _Dear Lord, it's simply going to be one of those days. _Cate thought to herself as she rose slowly to her feet and began to steal through the aircraft with soft footsteps. She leaped like a cat onto the side of the wall, hanging directly above a SHIELD agent as he walked through the door. He stopped and frowned slightly as if he could tell someone was in the room with him, Cate rolled her eyes. _Imbecile. _She watched him walk on, before landing softly back onto the rubber floor of the plane, slinking through the doors the agent had just come from. She heard voices coming from the front of the machine, and she fitted herself against the bend of a wall and listened.

"No, Ward just informed me that it's a CIA helicopter." There was a brief pause as the man seemed to be thinking. "But why would that matter? Can't I just shoot it down? What do you mean—NO?! If Captain Rogers was here he would—but Fury…" Cate instantly felt anger shoot up inside of her. No one would shoot down her partner.

"Wait, Catherine Carter? You've gotta be kidding me! She's on that helicopter?!" Cate froze when she heard her name. "Does Sharon know?" As if on cue, a hard round surface pushed into the back of Cate's skull.

"Make one move, Catherine, and I promise it'll be your worst one yet." Her voice was sweet and innocent, but Cate knew better than to trust her.

She chuckled richly. "So, you can't give me a ring on Christmas, but you'll shoot a bullet through my brain on any random day of the week?" Cate felt her stiffen up behind her.

"What does it matter to you?" The brown-eyed girl smirked slightly to herself, and instantly kicked her attacker in the leg, causing her to collapse to the ground. Cate snatched up her gun, which slipped out of her hand.

"Don't worry, sister, there will come a time you'll best me… Maybe." She smirked as she stood above the older girl, aiming the gun directly at her forehead. "You know, we really should have more of these little sisterly run-ins of ours. They're simply delightful." Sharon narrowed her eyes up at her and with one swift blow of her leg, flipped the gun out of her hands, landing gracefully on her feet.

"You were saying, Catherine?" Her eyes narrowed slyly, she pulled the small silver pistol up and aimed right at her.

"Do it, then, big sister. If you're going to shoot me, do it." Her gaze locked on Sharon's, but everything inside of her knew Sharon wouldn't do it. She was too big of a hero. Too big of a golden girl. The shining example of what a true hero of the nation should be. Her sister's gaze locked on something behind Catherine, and before she knew, a set of hands grabbed at her elbows.

"Well, you must be the infamous Agent Carter, hmm?" She rolled her eyes at the sheer annoyance of the situation. She looked sideways at her captor, and rolled her eyes, of course. Phil Coulson. The Avengers' little pet.

"And you must be the lovely Agent Coulson." She hissed with a sick smile that was too sweet. That was the scary thing about her and Sharon. The twisted innocent smile ran through their family like the blood in their veins.

Coulson's eyes sought for Sharon's, taking note of her appearance, making sure she was free of blemish or wound. "Are you alright, Agent 13?" Sharon smiled slightly at her commanding officer and nodded. Cate felt a feeling of revulsion well up within herself, she had always hated the affectionate bond Sharon seemed to latch onto every individual she met. That was Sharon's gift. She could truly make one smile, laugh, and feel _something_. Yet, Cate felt nothing. She never did. She found emotions as a weight tied to one's feet. If you were to step wrong in water, you would drown, coughing gasping on your overwhelming urge to love and care. Cate found it easier to simply not care at all.

Coulson's hands tightened at Cate's elbows, knowing full-well that if she tried to fight him, he could easily have access to her blind spots. She rolled her eyes and bit her lip in annoyance. "You blokes certainly know how treat a lady." She huffed defiantly. "Well, gentlemen, now that you have my attention, what is it that you want of me?" She offered a pretty smile to Agent Coulson. He simply laughed and shoved her into the arms of more idiotic agents of SHIELD.

"You see, Miss. Carter, you've gotten yourself into some big trouble. You're on a first-class trip to Washington. Enjoy." He smirked as he helped Sharon to her feet, and began to walk away. This whole state of affairs had Cate in a very irritated mood. How was she to tell Mathias what had happened? She looked down at her watch, the word—RED—blinking almost insidiously across her watch screen. It was a classic code used to signal distress, or a desperate attempt to make contact. She couldn't very well respond, or else these boys would be on her in a moment's notice. She needed a distraction. And she intended to find one.

* * *

SHIELD's aircraft was large enough; it seemed, to have a full living quarters for three. Coulson's imbecilic drones led her to a bog-like room, and she uncomfortably sat down on the stainless steel seat. With a tired and annoyed sigh she took note of her surroundings. The room they had pushed her into was some-sort of holding cell, but small holes of light burst through the walls, allowing sunshine to pour in. She desperately scanned the flat walls for a ledge, curve, or oddity, but there was none. This was a chamber designed to confuse and trick any captive of SHIELD, but Cate knew better. She had spent too much time being an interrogator, and spending too much time playing the bad guy at his own game. She watched her guards with an interested gaze. The one had large bronze arms and a glazed expression on his face, while the other looked alert and highly capable. _There you are_. A secret smile flickered over her face.

"So, boys, may I ask which one of you ladies is going to escort me to the loo?" She raised an innocent eyebrow, curling her bright red lips into a feline-like smile. The guard to her right, Dumbo, seemed to register only slightly what she was saying. He looked his counterpart for direction.

And as Cate expected, the man with the nametag, Rumlow, smirked slightly. He leaned over the table and looked into Cate's pretty face. "Look, Agent Carter, I've worked with more CIA agents than I have the time for. I don't care-ˮ Cate slammed her handcuffed wrists into his face. While Rumlow threw his hands up to his face with curse, Cate flipped over the table and slammed his partner's face into the wall with a powerful hit from her handcuffed hands. She was just about to kick down the door when Rumlow, in his annoying ignorance, grabbed her behind the waist and threw her to ground. She let out a pained cry, and on instinct, bit her lip to keep from any more obnoxious sounds from escaping from her lips. Her eyes wandered up to Rumlow's face and she noticed half the side of his eye was bleeding savagely almost like a river. He looked as if he wanted to hit her one more time, but he didn't get the chance to.

As if by God's saving grace, the door opened, and in strolled her salvation. "Hey, Rumlow, I was wondering if you-ˮ that was when she saw _him_. He was everything the cameras had prettied him up to be. She saw the muscles, the sun-touched hair, and of course, his beautiful sculpted features of his face…but none of that seemed to matter. It was his eyes. Those eyes… That just…

"Peggy?" His mouth seemed to stop working, his voice going soft. Cate could tell every muscle in that big body of his was frozen solid, tensed and full of hope. "How are you…?" Cate stopped struggling for a moment. How did he know her grandmum? How did…? Then it clicked, snapping right into place. The lust, the desire, the love… It was all there. It shined brightly right in those bright blue eyes of his. He hoped beyond everything it was her.

"Cap, she's not _that _Agent Carter. This one's a little bitch." Rumlow hissed with a bitter edge in his voice. Cate was now greatly aware that she still lay on the ground, looking like a broken doll. _Wonderful. _She managed an annoyed sigh and got up shakily, standing on her heeled boots with a steady balance.

"And who might you be? My rescuer?" She stuck out her lip and batted her eyelashes. Rumlow's jaw dropped as if she should know _exactly _who this man is. Barbie boy chuckled slightly, but his eyes still remained on hers.

"Something like that, I guess. But, then again, I only rescue the dames that need to be rescued, miss." He blinked and a small smile pulled at his lips.

"Oh? Well, then, Lieutenant Stars and Stripes, I'm a damsel in distress. That man was attacking me." Cate pointed at Rumlow, who for a moment, looked at her with a murderous stare. He turned quickly to pretty boy with a pleading look.

"Big guy, you know…" His eyes seemed to be pleading, but this only made the said—'big guy,' laugh. He seemed to find it incredibly amusing that Cate was being violated by Rumlow's bumbling personality.

"Rumlow, relax, I saw the whole thing." He offered him a smile, one of those smiles that could have said: I understand everything about you. I know what you're going through. I know everything, and there's nothing to be afraid of. Cate could tell why the big guy had it in with every lady at the CIA. The man was a walking-talking empathetic model!

"Are you two done with your little fag ritual? I'm sincerely considering coming to the wedding." She offered the two men a sly smile. Rumlow, despite his bleeding face, cracked a smile at her. "Sit down, Carter, I still got business to do with you. Especially if Chunk wakes up sometime soon…" He glanced down at his unconscious partner on the floor.

"You literally nicknamed the poor mate: Chunk?" Cate rubbed her temples. "By God, you Americans and your ridiculous ideas of fun." She leaned back into the wall, looking stubborn. She would keep playing the big guy, he seemed to like her. If she could play this nostalgia-like longing he kept getting in his eyes, then maybe, she could get enough time to send a message to Andrew… Perhaps, even escape.

Rumlow looked at her with an annoyed twist of his face, the blood flow above his eye was beginning to slow. Captain Rogers had seemed to finally take notice of the fact that his friend's face was bleeding. "Rumlow, go to the infirmary, I got her." He offered Rumlow one of those understanding smiles once again, patting him on the back and slipping into the seat across from Cate. His smile instantly disintegrating. So, America's golden boy could act. Cate felt a grin pulling at her lips.

"Agent Carter, everyone's all hyped up on the idea that you stole some very important information about SHIELD. You know anything about that?"

Cate offered him a sweet smile. "Can't say I do, America, and even if I did know anything about that, darling, I wouldn't tell you. That would be breaking my promise to the CIA. Besides the point, SHIELD stole the information first, I was simply taking it back."

Captain Rogers seemed not the least bit annoyed she refused to call him by his decorum: Captain. He simply offered her a slight smile, looking a little secretive. He pulled the file up from the desk, flipping through it. "Catherine Steven Carter…" His eyebrows knitted at her middle name. "You uh…"

"My father was an immensely large fan of your franchise, darling. Peggy was the one who suggested it, excuse me, Grandmum." His smile disappeared from his lips.

"How is she?" His voice was barely above a whisper. Cate saw that raw shimmer of vulnerability in his blue eyes. For a moment, she felt as if she shouldn't tell him. A odd feeling balling up in the bottom of her stomach, watching this man she had only met not fifteen minutes ago, flip through her life… Yet, for once, she didn't mind. She didn't mind if he did it. She hardly doubted he was the type to exploit anyone, especially not her.

"She's… She's still with us. Grandad passed away not three months prior," at this, Cate simply shrugged. "Though, she's been fighting a nasty case of pneumonia the past few weeks. Doc says it'll be her last cough that kills her." She looked down at the table, a bitter taste in her mouth. She forced herself to compose her face, swallowing any feelings down with her dark thoughts. But then she saw the captain. He seemed so saddened by this sudden news. Cate had felt the same way when the doctors had told her… Peggy was the only person in her life that had ever showed her what love was, never allowing her to forget what a little concern and care could bring a person.

"If it brings you any solstice, Captain, she always told me about you." His head rose from its slump, looking at her with a clear gaze. A small smile pulled at the corners of his lips. "She always liked to say: He was the most dramatic, idiotic man I've ever met… But he was a hero, and the best damn one this country's ever had." The captain began to laugh, the sound making something old and familiar in Cate's chest wake up. A genuine smile came to her face and she found she was laughing, too. _By God, what was this world coming to?_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Games We Play**

"So, that was when you first met Captain Rogers, correct?" The lawyer watched her with impatient eyes, scrutinizing her every move.

"Yes." Her eyes reaching up to look at Steve, but he was looking out the high-arched window of the courthouse. His golden hair looking like it was emulating the sun's streaks, while his eyes were pensive, and his face clouded with thought.

"And what was it exactly that Captain Rogers and the rest of…" his face was paused in trepidation, as if he didn't know how to proceed. Cate wouldn't, if she were him. The topic of the whole of affair was a sticky subject, but she couldn't help but get a slightly amused smile at his fumbling. For once, she was not the fool. "What was it you took from Director Fury and his team that day, Miss. Carter?" Her eyes were watching Steve as the lawyer had finally made a neutral claim. How appropriate.

"Miss. Carter?" The judge prodded her in the side, but she snapped to attention and looked to the lawyer. She settled a small smile on her lips, meeting his eyes.

"Well, everyone wants to know that, don't they? That's the million-dollar question. Well, for your information, councilman, I was simply following orders under CIA terms. My boss informed me to reach into the records regarding the Nazi deep-science division, Hydra. What I found was not exactly a polishing touch on SHIELD's precious armor. As it turned out, Hydra had been rumored to be growing out in secret branches of the government. There was something concerning the Sin Initiative, Project Chaos, the Winter Soldier, and well, you know the rest… Of course, being the logical lady I am, I never believed it. But in order for me to get more information about Hydra's developments, they needed a primary source of info…" Her words stopped and the sly smile slipped from her face. "They needed a fresh stream of desperately-needed leads, a "well", if you will." She looked down, not being able to meet the cold blue eyes that looked up to her now. She could feel _his_ eyes boring into her soul.

"And this "well" of information, you say, happened to be?" The lawyer had a snarky smile on his face. He knew he had her in his web of spun deceit.

Cate swallowed roughly, a bitter taste coming to her mouth. She forced her eyes to meet Steve's icy blue eyes. Those eyes that had changed everything.

"The Avengers' Captain, Steve Rogers."

* * *

Cate awoke with a start to her watch beeping. Her eyes flew open and she back flipped out of bed, sliding into an alert crouch. Her attentive brown eyes flickering around the darkened holding cell held in the basement of SHIELD's headquarters. She listened intently to the drone and click of the ventilation system, but heard nothing more. Something had woken her up. Her eyes moved down to the lit watch, realizing a coding signal was coming in. Mathias' code was flashing across the screen; she touched the side button allowing her partner's holographic screen to appear before her. His eyes widened at the sight of her, and a plethora of emotions came across his face: happiness, relief, and of course, anger.

"Cate, my God, do you know how long we've been trying to track you? Where are they keeping you? I'll have reinforcements come in as quickly as I can." Andrew's head was already turned as he was about to begin a tracking system.

Cate had not realized how much time had passed. She had lost track of the days after the first week. Fury and his team refused to share information with her regarding when she could take her leave, what they had told the CIA, and how they intended to keep her here if she obviously wasn't going to be sharing information. "It's useless, Mathias. I'm in the basement of the Triskelion, the place is ridden with bugged cameras and whatnot." She looked up at a camera that seemed to be having a stare-down with her. Luckily, she had been able to take it down without too much trouble that morning without the SHIELD agents noticing.

"It doesn't matter, Cate, you're my friend, and I'm getting you the hell out of there." Andrew's face was focused on another screen on his left, as his eyes turned to that one.

Cate sighed. Why was he completely incompetent? She knew it was pointless to argue with him any longer on the scenario, he would discover quickly enough there was no hope to rescuing her until Fury was right and ready to release her. "Andrew, listen to me, they want to know what information we took from them. They keep questioning me of the matter." Mathias' hands froze over the screen they were hovering over, and he turned to look at her.

"Agent Carter, you know I'm not at the liberty to say-ˮ

"Save me the bullshit, Mathias, what did Kay send us to get." She referred to Director Kay, the rather boisterous commander of the CIA.

"Okay, look… I don't know much, alright? What I know is only an iota of what is really going on. It turns out that there's this whole big thing with the 1960's Project Chaos…" He paused, frowning deeply as he typed madly on another computer nearby, the holographic image crackling.

"Andrew!" She snapped in a whispered tone.

"Right, sorry!" he turned back to her, as he met her eyes. "Project Chaos, come on, Cate, you have to know what that is." Cate did to some extent. When Captain Rogers finally disbanded the Red Skull in World War II, things turned devastatingly bleak for the scientists and soldiers of Hydra. It appeared that most of them were simply citizens of Germany who were roped into a nasty state of affairs, and the bloody Americans, being the imprudent fools they were, allowed them the mercy of their lives. Project Chaos was a collaborative effort between SHIELD and the newly-founded CIA. It not only pushed the remains of Hydra factions out of the U.S. and Europe, but also the likes of terrorism, communism, and imperialism. Yet the question was—why did federal agencies like SHIELD and Central Intelligence care about an abandoned effort of the 60's?

"The Sin Initiative." Andrew answered her question, almost just as fast as she asked.

"Pardon?" Cate frowned deeply. An uneasy feeling began to settle around her. Was this something she truly wanted to know?

"It involved Johann Schmidt's concubine, Adamen… It turned out that in a DNA test proved in 1965 that a- Wait! Director Kay, I have Agent Carter's signal!" Her anticipation collapsed inside her stomach and she groaned in annoyance. She'd have to bloody wait now.

Her grey-haired director leaped in front of the screen, pushing Mathias' head away from the screen and looking straight at Cate. "Carter, mission report." He stated looking ever-serious with a gruff voice.

Cate scrunched her eyebrows, slightly confused. "Kay, I'm not on a mission… I'm held captive in the Triskelion."

Kay stared at her blankly, as if that wasn't an excuse. "Your point being, Carter?"

"What do you mean—'my point being'—_I'm. Held. Captive._ What do you want me to say?" She drew each word of her sentence out. Her brown eyes meeting the director's with a furious gaze.

"Your goal, Carter, is to draw information out of that America-And-Proud-Of-It boy, Steve. If I remember correctly, he was steady with your grandmother. It shouldn't be too hard for you, being the twisted and seditious woman you are." Cate could not believe what she was hearing. Bearing a budding friendship with Captain Rogers did not exactly sound like her spot of tea. Sure, he was sweet, but Cate did not prefer the patience and honesty role that came with Steve. Beside the point, did Kay want her to even get out of here?

"Have you even tried to make contact with Fury to release me?" She snapped at Kay, not responding to his previous request.

"When you are in a prime opportunity to get the upper-hand in knowledge? Of course not! Do what you will with the Rogers' boy, but I expect results. I will give you six months. Play your role wisely, Agent Carter. Get whatever information you can on Hydra, if that means kissing Captain America's ass that is what you will do. You talk your way up, you play by their rules, you wear their uniform, and you follow Fury's orders. Do you understand?" Kay's sharp grey eyes met Cate's. Did he even know the bloody madness he spoke of?

"Director Kay! I cannot associate with these people… They're the reason my parents…"

"Save the sob story, Carter, I could care less. From now on, you don't contact us. At best, we'll hear from you in three months. Ah, yes, as for the information regarding the flash drive, you tell them you backed up all the private SHIELD files onto it. That'll give Nick Fury a run for his sorry-ass." Kay seemed to take some sort of satisfaction in that, as he was still shoving Mathias' face away from the camera with his arthritic hand. Cate had always known there had been countless disagreements between Kay and Fury. As to the reason, Cate had never been entirely sure. Although, if she had to take a guess, one man was too busy feeding lies to the other to realize the other man had already sold the lie. Coincidentally, that was exactly what Kay intended to do in Cate's situation. Truth be told, it was brilliant plan, but she was not about the idea of becoming Kay's pawn.

"You are making a mistake, Kay, I cannot-ˮ

"You'll live, Catherine. You always do." His words were oddly comforting. She knew exactly why his tone had suddenly turned sympathetic. Kay and his wife had been close friends to Peggy and her grandfather, and her director knew exactly what Cate had gone through after their parents' death. For a strange moment, the auburn-haired girl could only stare until finally Kay pulled away, and Mathias, offering her one last smile, clicked off the communication link, severing her only tie to the real world.

* * *

_**Steve**_

They all thought he was crazy. His iron fists shoved themselves ruthlessly into a robotic training dummy, the thing was made to fight with a super solider, but not Steve. It weakened after the third punch, and eventually cracked in two at the sixth. They all thought he was crazy for doing the things he did. Was it crazy he would wake up at 3:30 in the morning, on the floor, and for some 'crazy' reason it would feel more comforting that his newly designed bed? Was it crazy that he would drive all the way out to SHIELD's training center just to throw his armored shield around? Maybe, but it was the only thing he could do. He got bored. Restless. He needed to do something productive, or else, the thoughts just began to set in.

Peggy. Commander Phillips. The war. His friends. Bucky… He would think of New York, _his _home without all the modern stuff. His thoughts would wander to the ice. How it felt to be stuck in the frozen prison. There was nothing. Darkness. Then there were flashes of Peggy screaming at him to land the plane, but he couldn't. Oh, God, he had wanted to tell her he loved her. He had wanted to tell her how beautiful she was, but he never got the chance. She would always disappear right as he would black out again. He drifted in-and-out of that dream state for seventy years. Therefore, he didn't think of these things. The things that ate at his head when he let them. So, he didn't. It was easier just to be "crazy."

Steve slipped his shirt up to his face, wiping the sweat from his brow and catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror. Even after all this time, what he looked like now was a smack to the face. He kept expecting to wake up from all this. To open his eyes and be back at home in Brooklyn, where he would be back to his frail and sickly body type. But it never happened, and at times, Steve wished it would. For one, he wouldn't be in this hell of a mess.

The Battle of New York had opened his eyes. It made him realize this world didn't just need a super soldier, like him. What the world needed was a salvation, a revelation to get people to hope again. Brooklyn had been a city full of hope when he was a kid, he remembered. Every good fella was willing to give his last penny to the army. People told the truth. They did what they were asked of, and did it honestly, too. In this world, Steve didn't understand how it went around its slow-moving axis. Every man in SHIELD was just out for his own good, for his own benefit. Steve had told Fury: he joined SHIELD to protect people, not because he wanted to become part of a project to target civilians on their whereabouts, actions, and motives. That wasn't who he was. Fury was insistent, though, that he stay at SHIELD. He would, and he would play their rotten games.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: The Ghosts We Knew **

"So, you deliberately falsified your reasons for allying with the Avengers? You drew the affections of Captain Rogers as a way to get information? You lied to Director Nicholas Fury, Director James Kay of the _CIA_, and _the _President of the United States?" The prosecuting lawyer watched her with a steeled gaze, wanting her to crack under his harsh question. He liked to ask the audacious questions that seemed incredibly heroic to the courtroom. If Cate had asked for a lawyer, this would have been the part where her case would be pleaded as an objection to the court, but she didn't care. She was damned if she did, she was damned if she didn't.

Her eyes watched Steve. He was doing that thing that she found adorable with his eyebrows, where he would look like he was concentrating on something. It looked like he could have read her mind, and in some cases, he probably could. "Firstly, your honor," Cate addressed the judge, feeling the need to state her case with the head of the courtroom, rather than the snide lawyer. "If you had known me, in these scenarios, then you would have understood I had no choice."

"And why was that?" The honored judge looked at her with gentle, but prodding eyes. He seemed to feel some sympathy for the life in prison she would serve.

"Yes, please, Miss. Carter, what was the point of your falsehoods?" The attorney asked with a raise of his eyebrow.

"I had to play three different roles, gentlemen. What would you expect from a world-class spy?" She lifted her chin, looking defiantly at her accuser.

* * *

"So, Agent Carter, you feel like talkin' yet?" Rumlow had been at this all morning. He had just returned from his fifth trip to the bathroom. _Probably because the man is so full of shit he needs to relieve himself every ten minutes. _Cate thought to herself with a small smirk, but of course, Rumlow noticed her malicious attitude change. He leaned across the table, but not close- enough for her to reach. He had learned from his last interview with her not to get too close.

Taking this as a greeting, Cate plopped her boots up on the table, placing her hands behind her head in a careless manner. "Do you really think I'll tell you, Brock? Bring Director Fury's cowardly arse in here, then perhaps I'll speak." Rumlow seemed to find this incredibly amusing. He laughed and pulled away from the table, looking beside himself entertained.

"You think the director's the only one with power around here, Miss. Carter, you got a whole another thing comin'. There's a storm comin', a big one, too. If you think you're gonna be safe just because you can sneak into dark corners and hide on the back of some powerful people, you're wrong. This kind of power's been too secret for too long, Catherine." His face grew into a very strange expression. A light coming into his eyes and for a moment, he just smiled secretly at her as if she knew exactly what he was talking about. Well, thank goodness for the soundproof walls, if Fury and the rest of SHIELD would have heard this conversation, they would probably have believed Rumlow to be slightly insane, which he was.

Why had he called her Catherine? No one ever called her that, unless they meant to make a point. She frowned slightly, but figuring this to be a method of interrogation she didn't respond. Her eyes watched his with awareness, his muscles had tensed significantly. Any mundane individual perhaps wouldn't have noticed, but Cate did. His eyes grew dilated and his hands drew to awkward clenching, all nervous ticks of the untrained man who was hiding something. "What in God's name are you speaking of, Rocklow?" She asked with a neutral tone.

"Perhaps your partner could explain it better than I could." He slipped a picture of a woman across the table to her. Her partner? Mathias? Very confused, she looked at the picture and her blood froze. She kept her eyes glued to the picture, refusing to allow him the opportunity to see this welt of emotion grow inside of her. Agent 11, but to Cate she was simply Erica. Her best friend, or _was _her best friend. Her dark curls were pulled into a loose bun in the photograph, while her bright and intense hazel eyes looked back at Cate. Erica had been Cate's partner from the beginning… Her only friend. The only person she ever trusted entirely.

"I knew her once. She died…" Cate swallowed hard, and avoided meeting her interrogator's eyes. "She died in an explosion a year ago." She sharply raised her eyes to meet Rumlow's dark ones. "Why the mentioning?" She snapped, now angered that this imbecile would bring up her partner's tragic end.

Rumlow smirked sinisterly. "She's not gone, you know. Not entirely, anyway." He smiled at her slightly, his lip curling up insidiously. A horrible thought ran through her. How was Erica not "entirely" gone? Cate had seen her body blown into thousands of pieces. That mission had been the one loss the young agent never recovered from. She was suspended for three months due to personal reasons, and recommended by her doctor that she begin taking antidepressant pills. Peggy had even tried to convince her to do so, but Cate had refused. All she had wanted was to be away from her thoughts. The only solution was to go back to the agency as soon her leave ran its course, and pick up where she left off. Of course, none of this explained why Rumlow knew so much about Erica's unfortunate death. Or the fact that he was suggesting she still lived.

"What do you mean?" Her voice cracked by the rising sense of dread and alarm that was filling her. "My partner died in a terrible fire, she's gone." Her eyes darted frantically to the exit, hoping by some chance that an idiot SHIELD agent would swagger through the door.

"Erica Holstein, Miss. Carter, you know, had her secrets. Everyone always has that awful little _sin_ they like to hide." Sins? Erica was the most honest and truthful person she had ever met. She was terribly honest, but Cate loved her for those reasons. If she had had a secret, Cate would have known. Erica's life story wasn't erratic or questionable either; it was more or less ordinary, even. Rumlow seemed to be suggesting something darker of her beloved old friend.

"If you're implying that this has anything to do with the information I took, Rumlow…." Cate's voice came out hardened and hateful.

Agent Rumlow seemed to be faintly amused by this, but he held it in. "The storm's coming, Cate, a chaotic one."

* * *

After her strange conversation with Rumlow, Cate was allowed to walk around the Triskelion with the supervision of SHIELD agents everywhere. She wore a band around her ankle that could detect any sudden movements or if she tried to go outside her restricted area. Cate didn't mind playing their prisoner, it was simple. She simply had to act incompetent, ignorant to her surroundings, and as if she could not kill all the men in the room. Yes, everything that made her a masterful assassin she had to forget in order to get what she wanted. Her freedom.

Cate was now standing in a small hallway that looked out onto the Washington Monument. She remembered her grandfather had taken her all the way to the top once. He had been permitted due to his position in Congress, but unfortunately, he hadn't been all that supportive of Cate or Sharron. But now, with the sun touching the top of it in the midday light and the pool at the feet of the great statue gleaming, it looked like a beacon. She placed her hand on the glass, her chocolate brown eyes watching the little people below move to and fro. If only she could just kick this glass down and-

"Miss. Carter?" There's the reason she was staying.

"Hello, America." She turned to look at the handsome face of Captain Rogers. She offered him a sly smile, leaning against the railing that guarded the glass window. "You're the cutest damn thing I've seen all day."

Steve laughed slightly, his eyes meeting hers. He wasn't too distracted by her compliment. He must have received praise and adoring words from women all the time. "You thinkin' about jumpin', ma'am?" He was watching her very carefully.

"I don't know what I'm thinking of doing, Cap, in all honesty, escape would be too easy. You boys couldn't even catch me if you tried." Steve didn't seem the least bit phased by this. Instead, he walked over to her and took her arm. He studied her watch and a small smile pulled at the corners of his lips.

"Back in the War, they would put homing signals into practically anything: jackets, boots, ham sandwiches, canteens, and even watches." He let his thumb circle the face of the clock, flipping her arm over to the back of the watch, which he then ripped off of her wrist. "These little guys—ˮ he gently patted the back of the watch's face and with one smooth motion, ripped the metallic back off, pulling a small circular object out—"could track any missing soldier around. Tony Stark's father taught me about em', but you know? I never really understood why some men would go so far just to keep tabs on a target." His eyes met Cate's, and for a moment, she was trapped by some unforeseen force he seemed to have over her.

"You just cost me a million dollar piece of technology, Captain." Steve smiled at her quip, placing the watch back on her wrist.

"No, I didn't. Now, it's just a million dollar watch." He winked at her, clasping it to her wrist.

Without meaning to, Cate allowed herself to laugh at him. She had always hated the stupid clock, anyway. It was new and made her skin itch. "You twisted bastard." She laughed. "You have the whole world convinced you're America's mascot, when I have proof you're as bad as any cutthroat scoundrel!" She feigned an angered expression, but she couldn't help but let the smile break out over her lips.

"I don't know what you're referring to, miss, all I did was fix your watch… Which could also have served as your only way out…" So, that was his point all along. Cate smiled slightly, this man was better than she thought.

"Allow me, you want me to tell you the information I "stole" from SHIELD's databases, so that I'll have my freedom." She grinned, knowing she was right. Her red lips curled up into a crafty smile, her bright brown eyes carrying a twinkle of devious gleam. Steve seemed slightly surprised she was able to get all that from a simple suggestion. "Very well, Captain, I'll tell you… But only you, do you understand?" She thought of her words carefully, this was crucial to her position with her relationship with Captain Rogers. "My boss has always hated Fury and his belief that SHIELD is an untouchable force of nature…" Rumlow's warning of the storm resonating somewhere in the back of her mind, but why had it seemed so random and strange? Why the storm metaphor? Why the mention of Erica? Part of her wishing she could tell the Captain, but then again, he might have been in on it too.

She shook it off and continued, "So, you see, he believed that if I was able to retrieve all the private information from the agency's private stores, he thought it would have been a "up-yours" sort of notion to Fury." She offered him a perfectly enacted genuine look of honesty; one that had taken her only months to perfect. Steve seemed bought by this acting and nodded.

"You were only following orders." He squeezed her shoulder warmly, offering her a bit of empathy in his touch. _What a sweetie he is._ Cate smiled innocently and, acting as if she was shied away by his sudden action, moved her eyes away from his.

"Yes, Captain Rogers, precisely." She said softly, making her voice appear small and a bit scared. He raised her chin with his index finger and for a moment, made her meet his eyes boldly.

"Don't be afraid to be honest with me, Miss. Carter, please." His blue eyes met hers. Then she was surrounded by blue, his sharp and intensive irises drowning her in a deep sea of Caribbean blue water. He knew. He knew she was lying, but he was going to take it anyway. Why? She wanted him to point out her folly, her lie, her deceitful falsehood, but he wouldn't. Because he was Captain America, and he still believed that when someone said something they must have meant it. Even though everything inside his concentrated blue eyes knew she was lying.

"I'm not afraid of anything, Steven. Nothing at all." And even that was a lie.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Ohmygod! Guys, you're fantastic! Thank you so much to all of those who favorited and alerted my story and to my one reviewer last chapter! You guys make my life! But please, feel free to offer any criticism, thoughts, or comments you may have. I'm really trying to work on character development on this book, so if I sound like Cate is forming into a good character, please let me know! :) I did not have my lovely beta proofread this chapter, so please, ignore any mistakes you see. -.- Anyway, without further ado: **

**Chapter 5: A Legacy In The Flesh **

"Right. Now, Captain Rogers, can you describe the night of October the 5th?" Steve leaned back into the testimonial chair, his blue eyes deep in thought. The councilman, of course, was easy on him. Cate met his eyes briefly from her seat at the lonesome defensive side of the courtroom, but quickly looked away. She remembered that night like it was as clear as day. It had been her first move into SHIELD's inner circle.

"Yeah, I guess…" Steve thought for a moment. "A band of Russian pirates had taken the _Lumarian Star _captive, and many of SHIELD's best analysts were aboard. It was under Fury's direct command that I take a small group of SHIELD agents, as well as myself, out into the Atlantic on a rescue mission. Cate had snuck onto the aircraft that we were shipping out on, and managed to get onto the boat." Steve couldn't help but allow a small smile to pull at the corners of his lips. He couldn't help it when it came to Cate. She always made him smile.

"So, she accompanied you the night you and a small team of SHIELD agents broke onto the deck of the _Lumarian Star_? By a direct order or by her own choice of will?" The attorney watched Cate who simply smiled at him slyly from her defendant's chair.

"She… She came by herself, against Nick's orders." The Captain had now settled for watching the windows in the back of the Supreme Court. Cate knew it was simply an excuse not to look at her.

* * *

Okay, so maybe breaking out of SHIELD was not as easy as Cate had initially planned. Kay had prohibited her from returning any sooner than six months from now, and she didn't know how much progress she was making with Steve. Usually America's little golden boy was off saving some puppy from a burning building or flinging his shiny shield at some assassin going after the president…that may or may not have been her… But beside the point, Cate needed to get out of the damned prison. She hated being treated as if she couldn't break out of these cells, that was the easy part, but since her last escape from the Triskelion, the security had been amplified by a tenfold. It was as if they knew exactly what her next move would be.

Wallowing in her self-pity, Cate had taken to leaning against the cage doors, letting her long auburn curls hang out of the bars. Her boredom would get the better of her as she would start making a drumming pattern with her thumbs, usually in Morse code. Sometimes she would write out whole speeches from famous historic characters, or even something as simple as a greeting. No one around her ever seemed to know it was code, so she just kept on doing it. But it wasn't out of code or cryptic deciphering that she overheard Captain Rogers and Agent Romanoff speaking of a hostage ship out in the middle of the Atlantic, but sheer chance.

"Alright, tell Rumlow and Brommell to be ready in t-minus ten minutes. We're shipping out, then." That was Steve's voice; Cate had memorized it by every diction and clip of his slight Brooklyn dialect. This was new, though. He didn't sound like the normal Everyone's-Favorite-Superhero-Full-Of-Sunshine man she came to be familiar with, but rather that of a powerful and authoritative commander. A Captain.

"Sure thing, Rogers, but I should forewarn you, they usually don't let men older than seventy aboard the aircraft. They might give themselves a heart attack." Agent Romanoff's seductive and throaty tone was unforgettable. Cate had come close to many face-offs with the agent. Being a member of the former Black Widow Corps, didn't exactly appeal to Cate's fancy. It also meant she was relentless, malicious, and forcibly brutal, all of her traits which Cate honored. As a younger CIA agent, she always admired Romanoff's cruel methods of seeking out information, but she was a daughter of SHIELD. Consequently, Cate hated her.

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Hilarious." Captain Rogers had a slight grin in his voice. "Seriously, though. Figure out what's going on with those pirates, alright? On the landing port in ten, Romanoff." He said quickly, before walking past Cate's cell. _Damn_. He looked good. His old spangled stars and stripes suit had been replaced with one that was tinted navy. It appeared that he wasn't giving off the honest and kind vibe anymore, but a new one altogether. He was scary, even. His eyes were darker, if it was possible, deviated in intensity by several degrees. His features were outlined by the shadows of her darkened corner. She knew this was a chance simply hanging there.

You see, Cate had known precisely what they were talking about. An oil tanker about three months ago had been overrun by a band of vicious cartel pirates, all of them were intent on leaving no survivors behind. It was Cate and Mathias' duty, of course, to play "superhero" and to save the ship and all of its crew easily. She had been informed that the pirate gang had been pirating ships with sources of federal intelligence, like the oil tanker, which was ran by CIA ship-lines. The _Lumarian Star_, another ship of federal intelligence, was being threatened by oceanic pirates. Coincidence? Cate didn't think so.

"Ehem! Excuse me, Captain!" Steve had stopped and with an irritated sigh, turned to face Cate.

"Yes, Miss. Carter?" He forced a pleasant smile.

"May I ask what _E-X-I-T _means?" She pointed to the green sign hovering over the door he was just about to walk through. "You know me, simply daft to your American innovations." She offered him an innocent smile as she batted her eyelashes.

The Captain simply stared at her. "Exit?"

"Ah! That's what it is! I see. Well, now that you're here… What's going on with those Russian pirates you're going out to rendezvous with? Surely, you wouldn't be forgetting me on this little escapade? I'll suit up as your little sidekick, just call me: Private America Spandex." Cate was now cocking her head in a very irresistible manner, leaning her face very close to his; well, as close as the bars would permit. She made sure the top of her bosom was visible, and a good amount of cleavage was showing. She wanted his eyes to wander, his speech to be incoherent with conformation, and his mind to run ramped with the idea of her… But none of that happened, of course.

Steve's eyes stayed on hers, and in a harsh manner, even, he replied, "Miss. Carter, if I have to deal with you trying to escape one more time, I may just tie you up myself."

"In your bed then? Or mine?" She waggled her eyebrows with a grin, but Captain Rogers seemed more annoyed than entertained. He shook his head at her and walked away with an aggravated sigh. _Fine. I'll find my own way out. _Cate was crafty at this sort of thing. She had found a way to escape out of any cage or cell. In Atlanta, when Cate had been tied upside down over a pool of festering and hungry sharks, she had bitten through her ropes, leaping straight through the pool and safely to the ground. Or in Montenegro, a gun had been pressed up to her forehead while her extremities tied up behind her. Just as her attacker had been about to blow the bullet through her brain she head-butted the pistol, knocking it out of her attacker's hand, then ramming her head against his hand, allowing herself to slip out of her ties. She was as resilient as weeds, no matter how many times you tried to lock her up, she would keep coming back. She would just keep slipping through your fingers.

Thinking of what Steve said, she ran her hands along the sides of her cell. It was rectangular-shaped with fiberglass frames along the iron bars. She had been moved to three different cages because of her ability to escape from each one. So, it was no problem that this one wanted to be a little difficult. She stood and wandered over to the fiberglass, running her index finger along the pinched frame. She hissed under her breath as she pulled her finger back instantly, seeing a splinter of the hard material pinch under her pale skin. She pulled the splinter out with her teeth watching a small drop of cheery red blood form on her finger. An idea was beginning to form inside of her clever head. She grabbed hold of the frame and dragged her whole hand across it, not even bothering to cry out in pain at the amount of glass that stuck to her fingers.

Soon enough, her hand was trembling from the piercing pain. She grabbed hold of the bars and rattled them to no end. "Guards, please… My hand… The cage…!" She called down the darkened hallway. She heard the padding of feet as one of the guards came into the light. "Please, sir, I grabbed hold of the bars and my hand…" She raised up her blistered and wounded hand, looking quite beside herself worried. The guard frowned and opened the cage, leaving the door slightly ajar.

"Let me see it." He demanded clearly, Cate offered him her hand. As soon as he took it she feigned a wince and bit her lip in order not to appear too weak.

"It hurts…" She whimpered as she got herself into position.

"Well, I would think so… You have half a million pieces of wood stuck in her hand. Look, Agent Carter, I'll call up to the med wing, see what they can do, alright?" He dropped her hand gently. Just as he was about to turn away, Cate swept her booted foot beneath his legs, knocking him to his feet. She smacked him across the face with her injured hand, half of her splinters smashing into the side of his face. He cried out as he fell to the ground, Cate kneed him in the groin with every ounce of muscle in her leg. His mouth dropped into an 'O' of horror as he looked as if he had died the worst way possible. Cate always knew how to get a man to his knees. Always. She grabbed the keycard from his belt and slipped through the door gracefully.

Now, escape was the easy part, but getting onto the landing pad where Steve and the other SHIELD agents were…that would be the tricky part. Cate quickly curled herself up into a ball and rolled past offices, labs, and break rooms. Her ears perked on every little sound, her eyes attentive to every movement. She noticed a camera beginning to focus in on her, but with a smirk she leaped into the air and with a defiant yip she kicked the side of it, causing it to crumble into a million pieces. She landed on the steel floor with an easy pounce like a lioness landing on her prey. She rose to her full height, surveying the rest of her pathway to the ladder across the room. SHIELD agents were everywhere. She knew she couldn't very well take down all of them… Or perhaps she could, but it didn't matter.

Cate grabbed hold of a shift in the wall and pulled herself onto the ledge. She cautiously moved along the very narrow ledge to one of the support rungs for the overarching dome that was built over them. Easily and efficiently, she swung herself from the rung onto the ladder to the entrance. Her breath caught in her throat as a SHIELD agent had stopped typing at his desk above her, his brow furrowed as he began to look skyward. Her initial thought was to leap down from her safe post and bash his head against the very desk he worked at, but if she did that, all the other SHIELD agents would have noticed her. She would need speed more than defense. She kicked open the entrance with her free leg and flipped like an Olympic gymnast through the narrow hole. She blinked in the bright light of the rooftop. As soon as she found her vision, she realized she was out in the direct line of sight for Agent Romanoff and Steve. She rolled quickly out of the way, ducking down behind the small shack for the janitor's supplies.

"Ready?" Cate heard Romanoff ask Captain Rogers. He offered the red-haired beauty a smile, before nodding and walking after her onto the aircraft. Dammit. Cate chased after the hydroplane with incredible speed, as she grabbed hold of one of the narrow iron bars that hung from the bottom. She swore as her wounded hand still remained beaten and bloody from her vicious encounter with the fiberglass. She couldn't hang onto these bars forever. Especially not on an hour ride to the oceanside. She swung her feet up onto the bar, hanging easily upside down, as she grabbed hold of the mesh that was hanging loosely on the other side of the plane. She tied it to her side of the engine, making a sort of hammock-like invention. Fairly proud of herself, Cate slipped through and laid down on it, knowing full-well, that at any moment her cover could be blown.

* * *

It seemed like hours before she felt he plane begin to slow above a large, steel ship. She heard the drop-door open from above, her eyes moving heavenward just in time to see Steve leap down towards the darkened ship. Cate bit her lip, slinking over to the edge of her makeshift shelter and flipped out of her nest towards the deck. She felt her stomach dropout as she fell in a freefall, only conscious of the fact that she had misjudged her distance towards the deck. She panicked for a moment, before pulling herself together and into a stick-like formation, hitting the rocky ocean waters like a knife through butter.

She popped out of the surface like a fishing bobber, swimming quickly to the anchored ship. Cate quickly surveyed the scene, it appeared that the deck was segmented by a series of ladders, picking the nearest one to her; Cate pulled herself onto the ladder, climbing quickly and rolling up onto the steel dock. Her body shivering from the cold of the frigid water, but also from her anticipation of the waiting attack, but when she stood up she noticed that four guards lay sprawled at odd angles. Captain Rogers had already been through here. She cursed and quickly followed after the line of limp guards, not finding it hard to see where he had gone. Despite his ability to fight, it seemed that all the men were still breathing. Cate smirked. He didn't have the capacity to kill.

Once she found a door opened ajar, she crept in and seeing the Captain there at a computer. She paused, waiting for him to make a sudden move. She was about to walk over to him, her boot making a slight creak against the floorboards, but Steve was one step ahead of her, he spun furiously around and shoved her against the wall. His fierce blue eyes seething and his jaw tight with anger. "What the hell are you doing here? Who are you working for?!" He snapped almost rabidly.

Cate blinked and desperately fought against him. "Well, _Captain Rogers_, if you allowed me to catch my breath perhaps I'll tell you." When he didn't relent, but his grip on her throat only intensified, she stopped giving him the sly smile. She managed to choke out, "Alright! I came to help!" Steve released her, and Cate collapsed to the floor coughing.

"You came to help?" He looked at her dubiously. "And why should I believe you?"

"Yes, alright? You don't know these men like I do. My partner and I were sent out against these same gentlemen three months ago. And if I wanted to kill you, Rogers, I would have done so by now." Captain Rogers eyed her and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her up with one smooth motion, shoving her back against the wall.

"If you're selling me a damn lie, Carter, just to get me on the ropes…" He growled slightly before he let go. "Go see to the hostages. I'm sure you can handle that, right?" He raised an eyebrow, before running out of the room, after a group of guards who had just run past. Cate huffed. _I'll show him handling. _She was about to go after him, when she saw the blinking computer screen to her left. Caught by her unyielding curiosity, Cate turned to the blank screen. She jiggled her finger against the pad to wake the machine up; a bright blue screen greeted her with a number for the passcode. She simply smirked and blew on the keyboard, the last fingerprint touches coming into view over the numbers. She hastily typed it in and her access was granted. A file was already opened as she scrolled down the page.

**H.Y.D.R.A. AMONG US?—June 16****th****, 1965**

**Johann Schmidt AKA the "Red Skull" was a sworn criminal back in the 40's. Thanks to the valiant efforts of Captain America and the other members of the 107****th****, he was defeated. It was on Captain Roger's truthful word that the heathen was found dead, or was he? Investigations done by young and aloof Agent Kay of the CIA suggest differently. "The Red Skull may be dead, but that doesn't mean his legacy isn't. Hydra is not simply destroyed by just one blow, they even say it themselves: 'cut off one head and two more will return in its place.'" So, if Schmidt is really dead as the rest of us have always thought, what is this "legacy" that Kay is referring to? A secret faction? An unknown reclusive follower of the Red Skull? Or is it something even more intimate? Perhaps even flesh or blood. **

Cate stopped reading when she realized half the article hadn't been downloaded to the computer. She exited out of the file, seeing another few open as well. Her eyes wandered to the picture of Johann Schmidt with an attractive young woman with striking hazel eyes. The caption beneath read: **Schmidt and his so-called mistress, Adamen Cane. **Wait, Adamen? Mathias had said something about an Adamen. Could this be her? She quickly minimized the screen, opening up Google and typing into the search engine: Adamen Cane. A list of articles popped up, all portraying beside the link a beautiful young woman with dark chestnut curls and stormy hazel eyes. She frowned slightly, realizing she had seen her somewhere. She was about to open one of the links when a red flashing light began to flicker overhead along with the longhorn of the ship's emergency distress signal. Cate swore and quickly clicked out of the files, leaping over the railing and onto the main deck.

She saw Rumlow aiding a few SHIELD agents up into the aircraft. Cate sought desperately for Steve, which only took about thirty seconds since Captain Rogers was easily the biggest one out of all of them. She made a mad dash for the ship's basements, kicking and punching left and right at attacking pirates all screaming at her obscene words in thick Russian accents. She managed to break away from a clump of men, finally finding Steve fighting with a large man. His eyes were mean and malignantly glinted, but Steve seemed to be doing just fine, so she quickly crept out of sight, finding a few other SHIELD agents trapped in a locked room. She struck the door down with her gun and breezily leaped through the threshold, realizing six, large pirates were watching her.

"Shit." She cursed before they all began to swarm her. She kneed the first in the groin, her classic hit, before leaping up and doing a split in midair, knocking two of the other men down. The fourth grabbed at her arm, while the fifth her leg, his thick breath smelled of alcohol and cigarette smoke. Both of which she did not take lightly, as he began to let his meaty hands creep up her thigh. "Not tonight, mate." She hissed before twisting his arm back with her free one, breaking it with a sick snap. He howled and the other one released her arm out of sheer surprise, Cate took out her gun and quickly shot the other in the stomach while kicking the bigger one down to his knees, and slamming her pistol against his forehead.

She finally realized that all six men lay at her feet groaning and bleeding in pain, all of the SHIELD employees simply stared at her in shock. They must have been thinking: They had never seen her before, so why in bloody hell was she here? "Alright, ladies, come along, we're going to be leaving shortly. If any of you would like a souvenir for the road, I'll allow it." She smirked as she gestured to the groaning men at her feet.

* * *

Once they were back at HQ, Cate was about to proceed with Rumlow down into the basements, when Steve pulled her arm. "Miss. Carter, come ere', Fury wanted to talk to you." He offered her a grim smile, before leading her up the stairs. She could tell by the way he was walking stiffly and rigidly that something had pissed him off. Though, she couldn't just tell what it was yet. On the way back, Steve had been deathly quiet, even when Agent Romanoff had tried to speak to him. His greyish-blue eyes had simply looked out the window with a certain disgust hanging over his face.

Upon entering, Steve told Cate to wait in the lobby of Fury's office, his eyes carrying that glint that looked as if he could have thrown a car…or Cate at a wall, in this case. Out of respect, Cate did, figuring it was best to let him have a private word with Fury of her involvement with the mission. It wasn't long, though, until she heard shouting. Director Fury's secretary looked up at her with a sheepish grin, before turning back to her computer.

"You didn't tell me Romanoff had other plans! This is exactly what I'm talking about, Nick!" Steve's voice was at a full-fledged holler. This was something Cate had never thought she'd hear. Usually, Steve seemed so collected and calm, even in situations of great distress and panic. "What if she had set off a sort of time bomb and all of us were killed instantly, did you ever think of that?"

"No, Captain, because she had another mission. I didn't feel inclined to tell you because it was none of your business." Fury's voice was calmer than Steve's, but still on the brink of snapping.

"No, because you wouldn't tell me the truth, even if I asked, would you? What did she take?" Cate heard Steve slam his hands against Fury's desk.

"It doesn't concern you, Captain Rogers." Fury's voice was cool and dismissive as he stated the last statement. "Now, what's going on with the CIA tramp, Catherine? She escaped or what?"

Now, she had been mentioned, Cate sighed and rolled her eyes. This could be very interesting.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: "Vidimus. Venimus. Vicimus." **

"If I recall correctly it was shortly after that meeting with Director Fury and Captain Rogers, that you were inducted onto the Avengers' Team?" The lawyer made his point perfectly clear that he was going to go over every painstaking moment of her time under Fury's directive.

"Wrong again, sir." Cate smiled sweetly. "I was simply considered a temporary agent of SHIELD. Nothing more, nothing less." Her words were clipped a bit shortly as she was annoyed that he was bringing this up.

"Then why were you invited to the Stark benefit a month after the attack on the _Lumarian Star_, especially since you went on with Captain Rogers to perform a dozen or so other missions alongside other members of the…" he was at a loss of words once again, as he was trying to describe SHIELD's difficult situation. "The other members of the team."

"It was a benefit to aid the research for children's cancer, sir. I was simply going out of support for the cause." She seethed. She was so fed up with everyone aiming to pin the blame on her. Of course, she had been the reason everything that happened had… Despite all this, she wasn't ready to give up her newly found reason to live. She wasn't willing to give up this reputation that she had built up for herself, especially since she had worked so hard to attain it.

"And to fish information out of Captain Rogers." Damn this man. He liked to come at her with every sharp and pointy tool he knew how to use.

"If it's anything to you, which I'm well-aware it's not, you should understand that everything I did… Every single lie, secret, and twisted cheat I did, I did it for _him_. So, that he wouldn't be hurt by what SHIELD had in store for him and the rest of the Avengers. They were going to kill him! How did you expect me to react?" Cate was livid, as hot and angry tears formed in her eyes. Her voice had come out high and screeching, like she desperately needed to get her point across. Her bright brown eyes were ignited with a hazy desire to kick the prosecutor's teeth in. She wanted to grab his bright silver tie and wrap it around the slim and lean form of his neck.

"You had a funny way of showing that, Miss. Carter."

* * *

It was November 5th, exactly one month after Cate had smuggled her way into the _Lumarian Star_. Since then, she had been chosen to do other miscellaneous missions alongside other agents of SHIELD. She was doing exactly as Kay had requested of her, and oddly, she almost preferred the closeness of her fellow agents. Unlike her relationships with her coworkers within the CIA's confined and secretive walls, SHIELD was full of interesting and close-knitted people. They were all cut from different fabrics: Agent Romanoff from a heinous Russian upbringing would joke around with the light-hearted Clint Barton, or the Hawkeye, as he was often called. Agents Rumlow and Brummel tended to bring a keg of liquor with them to training sessions with the new recruits, entertaining themselves with their ridiculous drinking habits, while the newbies would run laps. Even Sharon had seemed to find her niche here, working in the intense-recovery wing as well as some undercover job that Fury had assigned her to on the side.

Cate couldn't help but feel a bit envious of everyone's seemingly touching relationships. Erica had been the closest thing she'd had to a real best friend, and if Rumlow was right, even she had had her secrets. Nonetheless, Cate was intent to make "friends" with her sister's dull-witted, unprincipled associates. It seemed that she had gained some sort of respect from being a member of the rescue squad on the ship, but she was still considered a cheating spy, which she was. Though, if she wanted her comrades of SHIELD to think more of her, she would have to go deeper into this "innocent" role she was playing. So, it was on this night that Cate decided she would accompany Sharon and the other agents to the Stark Research Benefit dinner in New York.

Upon her arrival, Cate had been expecting a rather trashy dinner consisting of skimpy servings of undercooked steak and trashy wine. She had never been more wrong in her life. The Stark Tower was illuminated from lobby to penthouse. Beautiful rose blooms and lilies arranged neatly on every surface and red-velvet carpets leading the way to the grand ballroom on the eighteenth floor. The scent coming from the buffet full of freshly cooked hog, glazed orange chicken, and buttered baked asparagus was mouth-watering. But nothing compared to the decor of the entire room. It was shifted into a swift glass dome like a canopy above their heads, while fresh ivy tendrils hung over iron arbors. The open windows surrounded the guests in a circular-like fashion, while they seemed so clear that the glimmering city of New York looked as if it could be touched all in the cusp of one's hand.

Cate had been in New York twice: Once when she had been posing as an expensive front-runner of a banking company, in an effort to bring down a powerful and fraudulent CEO of White Corporation. The second time had been that night. Her eyes gazed across the sparkling heights of the Empire State Building which rose like a king across the city, eyeing its share of the heavens. But in all its glamor and dazzling speed, Cate had to wonder what it was that those large and crowded streets hid. Captain Rogers had been created into a super soldier in one sitting simply by walking into a private laboratory in Brooklyn. Were there other secrets hidden beneath the city's fast-paced buzz?

"You know if you stare hard enough at that glass, it may just break." She heard a soft and charismatic voice say softly behind her. Cate turned quickly to see a middle-aged man with greying ginger hair and distinguished blue eyes. He had those sort of eyes that seemed to bleed blue. His rugged, but clean-shaven appearance had seemed to reflect that of another time, a time where men were meant to hold everything to a higher standard.

"Well, we wouldn't want such a pretty thing to break… Would we?" She asked coyly as she cocked her head to the side, her long tresses of auburn cascading down her back.

The man smiled and offered her his hand. "Alexander Pierce. I've heard some very interesting things about you, Miss. Carter."

Alexander Pierce or the head of SHIELD's administration. Hmph. This was the man that Kay worshipped. He hated nearly everything about SHIELD, besides Alexander Pierce. He was a man full of principle, he said. He held everything to a higher level. That man, according to Kay, was the reason the federal agency hadn't sunken into its own ruin. "Oh?" Cate raised her eyebrow, as she analyzed him, "What have you heard, sir?"

Pierce chuckled. "Only the best, I assure you. Although, it would seem I'm a little disappointed in you being here, Miss. Carter."

"And why's that?"

"I would have thought you'd be off with your comrades of the younger generation." He smiled slightly.

"Please, Mr. Pierce, they disgust me with their absurd talk of plans they cannot succeed in and wars they cannot afford to lose." She turned to look him in the eye with a hardened gaze.

Pierce seemed to find this amusing that a "temporary" SHIELD agent would say such harsh words about her superiors. "Then why are you here, Miss. Carter?" He offered her the other glass of champagne he had been holding. She gave him a small smile of gratitude, before raising the glass to her lips, taking a long drag of the golden liquid. She let the light substance slide down her throat like liquidized sunshine. It was perfect, by far the best champagne she had ever had.

As she pondered Pierce's question she watched her sister arguing with a drunken Tony Stark about wedding plans with Virginia Potts, his longtime partner and girlfriend. "I'm here because I need information, Mr. Pierce. Information about my targets, my identity, and SHIELD." She said delicately, not looking at her red-haired companion beside her as she finished her glass of alcohol.

"What if I told you I could give you that information, Miss. Carter… No strings attached, well… At least by my standards." Pierce's voice had all gone but silent as he finished his sentence. Cate turned sharply to face him, her brown eyes darting from his face to the other dancers.

"You would be an imprudent fool to believe that I'd trust you." Cate hissed as her hands curled into fists. Each muscle within Cate tensed. She felt like everything inside of her had tightened. Her intestines had turned to steel, while her stomach had twisted into iron, and a cold and uneasy trickle tickled her spine. What was everyone she associated with playing at?!

SHIELD's head administrator laughed and held up his hands in defense, his blue eyes seemed to hold a darker light within them. It was as if he knew he possessed all the power, he _knew_ he held all the cards in the conversation. And for some strange reason, Cate felt as if he knew more about her position in this situation than she did. "Catherine, please, don't be rash. I was only offering the chance to see an old friend…" He was about to turn away, when Cate grabbed hold of his arm tightly.

"What in the devil are you speaking of, Pierce?" She spat at him, but Pierce simply smiled slyly.

"Have a goodnight, now, Miss. Carter." He walked off into the crowds, as he was greeted by some reporter. Cate growled deeply in her throat, her grip on her glass tightening. She huffed; thoroughly annoyed by the web she seemed to be sown into. She felt like a fly on the wall at this party, while everyone seemed to be having a good time, Cate was off running circles with Alexander Pierce. What had he meant by "old friend"? Her thoughts turned to Rumlow, her eyes searching him out in the crowd. He was standing by the buffet, speaking to a dolled-up version of Sharon. Her cute ringlets pulled into an adorable golden ponytail, while her satiny gold dress formed to her contours beautifully. She really did look stunning, but Cate would never admit that. Beside the point, Rumlow had spoken to Cate weeks ago of her late partner, Erica… He had been saying something of her death not being entirely true? Could it be that Pierce was suggesting something about Erica? She shivered at the thought. She didn't like thinking about Erica's death. It had all been too fast, too real… Too late.

Cate waded through the crowd of elegantly dressed people, flocking to her sister's side and draping her arm around her shoulders. "What do you think, Rumlow? Aren't we simply adorable?" Sharon's face had been smiling, but instantly, as soon as Cate appeared it disappeared. Her shiny grin replaced with an abhorring grimace.

Rumlow laughed, watching Cate's face with one of those strange looks he would get sometimes. "I wouldn't go that far, Agent Carter..." He smirked slightly, before awkwardly shifting in his dress shoes and walking off.

"Well, isn't he fun?" Cate grinned, but Sharon shrugged her little sister's arm off her.

"Can you not be incredibly annoying for thirty seconds?"

"I suppose… One, two, three…" Sharon pushed Cate back some, a thunderous look on her bright and lovely features.

"Shut up! God, you wonder why you have people problems, Catherine!" Cate wasn't listening her eyes had landed on the blonde hunk from Asgard, Thor. Sharon had seemed to notice she wasn't listening to her, either, and watched her line of vision.

"Catherine. Don't even-ˮ But Cate was already strutting over in her high-heeled stilettos and tightly-formed black dress. She flipped her hair back, taking on the air of a prestigious politician and politely touched Thor's arm. He was in the middle of a heated conversation it seemed with two other men, both of whom Cate recognized from the labs of SHIELD's basements. He must have felt her touch on his arm because he turned slightly to look at her from the corner of his eye.

"Excuse me, sir? I'm Catherine Carter, head nuclear physicist of SHIELD, I was just coming to inform you of some updates we've been working on for the portal from Earth to Asgard. I thought you may want to hear them." She offered him her most dazzling smile, but Thor didn't seem the least bit phased. Instead he raised an eyebrow as she was yanked by her elbow by a strong force.

"You've got to be kidding me, Catherine! Do I have to babysit you every ten seconds?" Sharon nagged as she slapped her face with her palm.

"Nope." She popped her "p." "You're the one who's insistent on me fitting in, Sharon. I'm simply trying to make friends." She grinned easily.

"No, Cate, right there… You were definitely about to try to make a move into Thor's pants. You do realize he's like a god? He could like blast you into a billion pieces if you crossed him." Her brow furrowed as she lectured her.

"Yes, well… Good to know." She shrugged. Cate didn't very well care what Sharon had to say. She did as she pleased. Her eyes fell on Steve who was sitting at a table by himself; his eyes were staring off into the distance on some unknown focal point. His eyes glazed over with a haze of thought. "You know, you and Captain Rogers would make a lovely couple, did you ever think of that?" She grinned at Sharon, who just stared at her like she just told her that one could light a match under water.

"Catherine, you do realize what my undercover work is, right?"

"No, nor do I care to hear." She offered her a bright smile, but Sharon just ignored her.

"I'm posing as Steve's neighbor. It's my duty to protect Captain Rogers at all costs." She nodded to herself as she had convinced herself it was the most important gig in the world. "And that means, he can't know who I am until it's safe."

"Allow me, you're going to avoid hitting it for the sake of some measly mission?" Cate seemed unimpressed. Her sister sighed tiredly and rubbed her temples, as if Cate had just her two plus two did _not _equal four.

"There are more important things than sex, Catherine." She sighed and rolled her eyes, walking off into the crowd. Cate watched after her for a bit, before her eyes landed on Alexander Pierce. He was speaking to Rumlow in the corner of the room; they were discussing something in soft tones. Pierce looked around as if someone was watching them, placed his hand on Rumlow's arm, leaned into his ear to say something, and then walked off. His studded cane was swinging from his hand as he walked. _Well, wasn't that peculiar._

After Pierce disappeared through the doors, Rumlow went the other direction and out the opposite doors. _Oh no, you don't, darling. _Cate walked past Agent Romanoff who was trying to pull Steve out onto the dance floor. Her eyes met his and he offered her a small smile, one that said something Cate couldn't quite grasp… It wasn't apathy or dislike, but something softer… She didn't get the chance to decipher Captain Rogers' message, as she turned and followed Rumlow out through the glass doors into a darkened hallway. There were a few couples walking along the tunnel gazing out onto the starry night and laughing in quiet voices, but Cate paid them no mind as she hung back just enough to keep suspicion off of Rumlow.

He slunk back to a sliding door, entering a passcode with his fingers and entering into a small room. Cate knew she had to act quickly. She rolled quietly through the door behind Rumlow, darting behind a darkened piece of furniture, just before the door closed shut. There seemed to be two people in the room. There was a woman wearing a long and extravagant gown and Rumlow, who had seated himself across from her. Her face was covered by a veil and from what Cate could see from her hiding spot, she was tall and lithe. "It's done. The asset is ready, Sister."

She was silent and then she spoke in a rich and creamy tone, "Excellent. What of Pierce?"

"He is readying the attack, but he needs time. They have to believe that it was something outside of SHIELD, not within the cloistered walls. The Board of Directors is nagging him about the unimportance of this Project Insight. He told me that Zola's work will be complete soon enough."

"Zola, please. He was the stain on my father's work." She hissed in a deep and slivering tone that seemed to sound like snake rather than a woman. "If he knows what awaits for him, he will not be so quick to pin blame on others…" She was silent for a long while, before she asked, "Anything on Catherine?" Cate froze. What did she just say? Catherine? As in herself? Every hair on Cate's arms stood on edge.

"She seems to be piecing it all together, but she's a sharp one, Sister, she will learn soon enough. Pierce informed me that he poisoned her drink earlier, when she collapses I'll be there to take her to you." _What?! _Cate panicked and leaped out of her hiding place, she jumped onto Rumlow's chest, knocking him clean off of the couch. Her nails dragged across his face, raking his skin fro and the blood burying itself under her fingernails. He screamed out in pain, as tried to get her off, but her legs held to his sides tightly as she straddled him.

"Relax, Catie, please." The woman rose to her full height. Cate had been right, she was tall. She had to be at least six feet, give or take a few inches. Cate's blood ran cold, as she turned slowly, loosening her grip on Rumlow who was crying from the scratches across his face. _That voice_. She knew that voice… But suddenly, she couldn't think straight. Her thoughts were blurring together. Where was she? How…? Rumlow threw her off of him, but Cate could only half-heartedly slump against a piece of furniture. Her hand trying to reach for the woman's dress, but she saw four shaky images of her, unable to decipher which was the real one.

"Who…are…you…?" She dragged out of her mouth; the world was tilting sideways as her head nodded to the left, hitting the floor.

"You'll find out soon enough, Cate… I promise." Her voice was soft and concerned as if she cared. Cate wanted to scream for Sharon… Her older sister always knew what to do, but before she could, the night took over.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hi, everyone! Just wanted to say thank you once again to my amazing reviewers, you guys are beyond perfect. My favoriters and alerters, you guys are the ! :) I didn't proofread this chapter, so if you see any stupid grammatical mistakes, please, disregard. -.- **

**Chapter 7: Betrayal In Every Resurrection **

_**Steve**_

Steve had been sitting at his table for some time. His fingers idly tapping the side of his glass, while his eyes watched Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton dance across the polished marble floor. He knew he really should go up to the woman who had been standing by the bar for a good while watching him. He should ask her if she wanted to dance. He should make some clever jab about how she should be careful, or he may step on her feet. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. It wasn't that she wasn't pretty or interesting, but he simply didn't want to. There was nothing there for him.

It wasn't enough that tonight was Bucky's birthday, but he had to wear this monkey suit with it. He smiled slightly at the thought. His old pal. How old would he have been? Ninety-seven. He smirked and raised his glass up to his lips. _This one's for you, Buck_. He thought to himself as he downed the rest of the bourbon. Damn it. Now he was thinking about Bucky. Bucky, the same kid who had come up to him in the middle of the street, too damn scrawny to fit his own name: James Buchanan Barnes. He had been a kid full of charisma, even then. Every boy in Brooklyn knew Bucky, and if it wasn't enough, Bucky had adopted Steve as his best friend, his brother, he had called him.

They spent countless nights together that summer they met. Bucky had taken Steve out to his grandparent's farm out by the Finger Lakes. They had fished, played, and worked in the midday sun; their worries of the Depression and War were years away, it seemed. Even so, Steve had never been a fool. Bucky grew older and so did he. It was quickly discovered that Steve would be the outcast, while Buck would grow into the shining example of what a man should be. Despite their utter difference in physical appearance, Bucky never lost hope in Steve. He stayed by his side through thick-and-thin. Their bond had been thicker than blood.

Steve had been raised in a Christian family, but that didn't mean that Bucky's kindness hadn't meant anything. For a sickly kid like Steve, it had meant the world. He vowed that if he ever got the chance, he'd want to be just like Bucky: strong, charismatic, and kind. Now, he was. He had become what he'd always wanted to be, but he couldn't accept the fact that it wasn't Bucky who sat by his side. He turned his head to the empty chair beside him, his thoughts coming back to reality. The seat was empty, but so were his friendships he had seemed to conjure in this brittle modern world he lived in.

Ever since he was a kid, he only wanted to do the right thing, just like Bucky had. Bucky always did the right thing. He'd give a hand to those who needed extra help during the Depression, taking advantage of his parents' wealth, and aiding them instead. His mother baked casseroles for the Rogers' family for months after the Stock Market Crash of 29', and their father offered to chip in on the piling bills for heat and electricity. All the Barnes' were good people. It was no wonder Steve wanted to do the right thing when the primary influence in his life had been Bucky.

But here was the kicker: With Bucky gone… With everything gone to empty crumbles of a leftover reality, how did he know what _the_ _right_ was anymore? When Fury would never tell him the truth, or Romanoff, who he had considered his friend, would feed him lie-after-lie… Where did _the right_ lie in the corruption? Modern society had blurred too many lines, burned too many documents of peace, and become too selfish with its own desire for power. This was what made Steve sick. It made him feel as if his own inner core was caving in… When Captain America didn't know what was right anymore, who did? The whole world expected him to contour to their ways, but he didn't know the first thing about it…he didn't think he ever would.

"Steve!" His eyes snapped back into focus as he turned to look at who had called him. Rumlow. _By God_, what happened to his face? He was bleeding profusely, while long and jagged scratches ran down his face. Captain Rogers was on his feet immediately, moving towards him.

"Rumlow, how did you-ˮ

"That _little _bitch, Catherine Carter." He hissed. Shocked faces had begun to take notice of Rumlow's face, and a stunned Romanoff walked over. Her eyes taking in every bloody curve of his cuts.

"I think you'll need a big Band-Aid for those, Brock." She offered him a coy smile, only trying to lighten the mood, but Rumlow didn't seem to find it comical at all. A man, who claimed to be a doctor, began to pull at Rumlow's arm, insisting that he needed medical attention. Steve frowned slightly.

"Brock, where is she?" Steve called to him.

The SHIELD strike agent narrowed his eyes and cocked his head towards two doors that he had just exited out of. "After she murderously attacked me, she leaped out the window and made her exit down the street. I suppose that's what we get for trusting a CIA agent." Once again he spat, and the doctor was even more persistent for Rumlow sit for him, which he finally did with a reluctant growl. Steve made sure that Rumlow was receiving proper medical attention, as the doctor applied pressure to his wounds; an ambulance was called and informed them the medics would arrive shortly.

It didn't add up. Why would Cate just leave…? She had had opportunities before, and she hadn't escaped then. Why, now? Of course, Steve always assumed she was playing her own game with them, while they were playing theirs. But if Cate was trying to mess with their heads, why would she try to escape? "I'll be back, I'm going to go look for her." Steve called to the small group of SHIELD agents who had gathered around Rumlow, he jogged out the doors that the bloodied Rumlow had just come through not but ten minutes ago. He suddenly wished he had his shield, it had become like a piece of him, a constant familiarity in times of trial, but he had left it in his apartment in Washington. He had assumed he wouldn't be needing it at something so trivial as a children's benefit dinner, and perhaps he wouldn't, but he got the strangest premonition as he entered into the darkened hallways of Stark Tower that something was lurking there… Something was watching him.

_**Cate **_

Darkness. Cate felt herself submerged within the dank clutches of its jaws. She fought against the sinking feeling within her mind, an irresistible lull to fall back into the abysmal pits of her consciousness. She felt itself wrapping her around in shrouds of emptiness, and if she were to scream, no one would hear for millions of miles. She was alone in the darkness of her mind. The darkness was where all the demons of Catherine Carter resided. Crazy and misunderstood demons that wanted to pull her apart.

She felt them creeping up from the edges of her sanity, while her twisted mind began to contort into flashes of the past. A scream like hot knives sliced through her mind as the accident was relived, her sister's body thrown against her at the force of impact. _Crushed like a little bug… _The voice whispered into her ear once again, while Erica turned sharply to her. Her bright hazel eyes were blood-shot, panicked at the sudden threat. She opened her mouth to call to Cate: _Never forget_—her body imploding into a thousand pieces of flesh and disintegrated bone as the explosion caught her. Sharon. Her sister's bright shiny face distorted into one of betrayal and anger. _I trusted you, we _all _trusted you_. Finally, she stood in a room with glass mirrors all of them showing herself, but different facets…different identities she had stolen for the past six years. They all stared at her with the same blank expression of unrecognition. _You used to be good. You used to laugh. __**I still am good!**_ She wanted to scream at them, her voice becoming lost in the screams of their high voices. Her eyes landed on the final mirror, it showed her short, but lean form staring back at her. The girl touched the mirror allowing her fingers to spread out in a fan-like gesture, as Cate touched her own reflection the glass broke with her own voice screaming: _What have you become?! WHAT HAVE YOU BECOME?! _

Cate sat straight up from her slumber. She realized she was sobbing, her voice ragged from screaming. Her arms were tied to heavy iron stumps that popped up from the bed she was laying on. Her feet tied together by a thin rope. The room they had chosen to confine her in was a simple square of cement while a big glass window looked into an empty room. Cate assumed that it was one-way glass, she could tell by the slight tint along the edges. She pulled against her chains, realizing they were made for someone much bigger than herself.

"Catie?" She snapped her head around at the voice behind her, and sure enough, there she was. Erica Holstein, her long-lost comrade, her only and true best friend…her other half. She found her jaw dropping, as she scrambled to compose herself. Erica. Hot tears formed in her eyes as she met her old partner's, a soft feeling welling up inside of her chest… She was standing before her, with her bright and intense hazel eyes watching Cate. Could this be real? Or was she still caught in the nightmares of her mind? "How are you feeling, Cate?" Her voice quivered slightly, and then distrust hit Cate like a slap in the face. Erica was _never_ unsure of herself, much like Cate. They were identical in that way, acting as one person, rather than two separate people.

Cate's eyes narrowed into slits. "_Who are you?_" She hissed like a cat, venom rolling off her ragged voice. She watched as the dark-haired woman entered slowly, raising her hands up in defense.

"Catie, it's me, Erica." Her wide eyes tried to seep with concern, but Cate knew that look in her eyes. Erica's eyes had been filled with depthless understanding and love, but this woman seemed to go as far as the surface.

"I know my partner when I see her." Cate met her eyes with a fierce and unrelenting gaze. "So, I'll ask you once more: Who. Are. You?" She enunciated every word, but her voice had gone deathly silent.

Erica swallowed sharply, meeting her gaze just as hard. "I'm your partner, Catherine… Not the one you remember, but I'm her, sure enough."

"I saw you die… You…" She couldn't allow herself to finish the rest.

"You saw something, that doesn't mean it's real." Her voice was quiet. "Now, I don't have much time… Captain Rogers and all his _loving_ comrades will be here soon enough. What you see and what is truly meant, Cate, are two very different things. Agent Rumlow—ˮ Cate grabbed her arm sharply with what little strength she could muster out of her restraints.

"What do you bloody mean—Rumlow?!" Her eyes searched Erica's for that key look of sincerity and trust once more, but found none.

"I'll explain another time, Cate, but I'm running out of time…" A loud bang echoed outside of the room. Erica's eyes, for a split second, seemed to change from her calm hazel to a horrendous black, but as quickly as it happened, they returned to their normal color. "Listen to me, I need a favor of you, Cate, and I'm well aware I'm in no position to ask of them… But only you're capable of the skill it requires," she swallowed, getting her bearings, "the information—ˮ another loud bang sounded directly outside the door, cutting Erica off—"The flash drive, Romanoff is in possession of… Or will be, soon enough. I need it, Cate. The sake of mankind depends on it… The sake of humanity. All of it." Her voice was desperate and scared, her eyes darting from the door back to Cate. She swallowed, standing to her full height. What in God's name? A flash drive?

Cate could remember her wearing the classic CIA uniform perfectly, her long and wild dark curls would have been pulled up into a high ponytail, while small curls would have hung down and framed her face. Erica, the one who stood before her now, was nowhere near the same woman she had been. She wore military-like pants, baggy and lacking form, but her tank top pressed against her tightened muscles, allowing her toned arms and abdomen to be seen clearly. It seemed that the once laughing face of Erica Holstein was replaced with a permanent grimace, and her eyes were empty of all concern. She looked behind her as the door banged one more time, sounding as if it would break open at any moment. "Trust me, Cate, please…" She swallowed once more and just as Erica was about to leap through the open window, beside Cate's bed, the brown-eyed woman caught sight of a flash of silver of her chain hanging around her neck. It looked to be a skull with some sort of design hanging from beneath it. _Had Erica gone mad? _

Her former partner leaped through the window just as the door bust down. Cate had to smirk lightly, despite her weak state. Who would have thought that Captain America would have looked good in tights? Well, he did. She couldn't help but hide the relief that welled up in her chest. Perhaps now she could get some answers. A small army of SHIELD agents broke into the room, as Steve met Cate's eyes. He strapped his shield to his back and walked over to her cautiously, placing himself at the edge of her bed lightly, as if she would break just by his sheer touch. His gaze seemed to see into her soul, see the shaking fear that was still quivering from her nightmares… "Are you alright, Miss. Carter?" She offered him a small smile, feeling the utter tiredness hit her.

"Marvelous, Captain. Would you mind telling me where we are?" Cate had no recollection of the past day, and if her watch was right, it had been two days since her encounter with Rumlow and the woman who referred to herself as "Sister."

Steve looked to a man beside him, the two exchanged glances, communicating in a language full of eye contact. Cate would have none of that. "Gentlemen, please, where am I?" She snapped impatiently, wishing one of them would break her chains already.

"Miss. Carter, you're in the basement of the CIA headquarters… Fairfax, Virginia." Steve stated as he walked over, fingering one of the locks on her arm. Cate sat straight up. Her jaw dropped open as she stared at the Captain and the rest of the SHIELD agents. A million questions ran through her mind. How had Erica brought her to Fairfax?! They had been in New York… Who would have allowed her to…? What in God's name was going on?!

* * *

As Cate finally finished, the prosecutor seemed lost in thought for once. The situation still confused her a bit; even now when she knew how it had happened. A painful throb still pierced her heart as she thought of the truth. "It wasn't until six months after that November, that I discovered precisely how Agent Holstein had gotten me into the basements."

"And by what way was that, Miss. Carter?" The attorney asked her, finally as he regained some of his former courage.

Cate's answer was in silence, as she forced herself to bite her tongue to keep the tears from welling in her eyes.

"Miss. Carter?" His patience disappeared and he was once more prodding her with an agonizing question.

"Agent Andrew Mathias."


End file.
